AI Local Recommendations: Your Website Matters More Than You Think
Today's Highlights: AI local recommendations through 200,000 searches
Have you noticed that customers no longer just ask Google, but ask ChatGPT directly, "Which dentist in Banqiao has good reviews?" These "AI local recommendations" are becoming a new front door for businesses. In mid-September, local marketing tool provider BrightLocal published a study analyzing about 200,000 unbranded local search queries across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and AI Overviews, covering about 1,300 business locations and roughly 1.9 million AI citations. Several findings are well worth a business owner's attention.
First, AI answers are very unstable. Ask the same question twice, and the two lists overlap by only 20 to 30 percent on average (about 23% for ChatGPT, 21% for AI Mode and 33% for AI Overviews). If a business is mentioned once, there's only about a 50% chance it will show up the next time.
Second, Google Maps is still the more reliable storefront. The tracked businesses appeared on Google Maps 66% of the time, but only 32% to 38% of the time across the three AI interfaces. Maps returned consistent results for repeat queries 99% of the time, versus 91% to 96% for the AI interfaces.
Third, different AIs give different answers. AI Mode and AI Overviews recommended the same businesses only about 29% of the time, and ChatGPT overlapped with Google by only about 20%. The number of businesses listed per answer also differs: ChatGPT averages 4.1, while AI Overviews lists only 2.5. There are fewer spots than you'd think.
Fourth, where you ask from matters a lot. Asking from several locations within the same town, ChatGPT's lists were only about 36% identical, and just 3.5% of businesses appeared at every location. On distance, about 50 to 60 percent of recommended businesses were within 5 km, but ChatGPT occasionally recommended places far away, with 90% of recommendations within 287 km, compared with roughly 38 to 64 km for Google's AI interfaces.
Fifth, and in my view the most important: your website matters. Of nearly 2 million citations, businesses' own websites made up 42%, and Google Business Profiles about 28.5%. In other words, before AI recommends you, it reads your website and business profile. Businesses with a physical storefront were also mentioned 33.6% of the time, slightly more than service-area businesses at 29.4%.
Another reference is HubSpot's generative engine optimization (GEO) guide for small businesses, updated in late August. Its advice for owners on small budgets is practical: answer the question directly near the top of the page and state clearly your business name, services and location; compile 10 to 15 of your customers' most common questions into an FAQ; keep your Google Business Profile complete and reply to reviews; and keep your name, address and phone number identical across all platforms. That said, HubSpot sells marketing tools itself, and several figures in the article have no cited source, so take them with a grain of salt.
Jesse's Take: Don't just tend your map listing. Make your website readable by AI
My first reaction to this study: AEO is not about abandoning Google Maps, but about managing "maps + website" as a pair. For many small shops in Taiwan, the business profile was set up in a hurry when the shop opened, the website hasn't been touched in five years, and the latest prices and opening hours are posted only on the LINE Official Account or Facebook page, where AI can't read them. The service details the owner knows best are exactly what you can't find online.
For small businesses, this is actually good news. Getting onto Google's first page used to require budget and backlinks. Now AI cares more about whether your information is clear, consistent and credible, and that's groundwork owners can do themselves. I have three suggestions:
Suggestion 1: Align your basic information first. Your business name, address, phone number and opening hours must be exactly the same on your website, Google Business Profile, Facebook and every booking platform. AI cross-checks multiple sources, and if your information conflicts, it simply won't mention you. This costs nothing but an afternoon.
Suggestion 2: Make every page of your website understandable at a glance. A common scenario: an air-conditioner maintenance technician in Xinzhuang has a homepage with just one big image and the words "professional and caring." After reading it, AI still doesn't know which areas he serves, which models he handles, or roughly how much he charges. Write those details out clearly and add an FAQ section, and your chances of being cited by AI naturally go up. Human customers will feel more confident too.
Suggestion 3: Don't put faith in a single AI ranking. The study shows that asking the same question again replaces more than half the list, so be especially wary of services that claim to "guarantee ChatGPT will recommend you." What you should look at is your overall appearance rate over time, across multiple questions and platforms, not a single screenshot declared a success.
An honest caveat: this study was done by a company that sells local marketing tools, and the sample is mostly from Western markets, so results in Chinese-language contexts may differ. Use the direction as a reference, but don't apply the numbers directly.
A first step you can take today: Open ChatGPT and Google and ask three questions in a customer's voice, such as "recommended air-conditioner maintenance near Xinzhuang." Ask each question twice, and note whether you were mentioned and which websites AI cited. This ten-minute log is the starting point of your AEO work. Ask again next month and you'll see what changed.
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